Saturn's F Ring

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Voyager 2 took this high-resolution image of Saturn's F ring Aug. 26 from a distance of 51,500 kilometers (32,000 miles). This closeup view shows that the ring is made up of at least four distinct components. A higher-resolution scan through the F ring, the result of the star occultation experiment conducted by the spacecraft's photopolarimeter, showed even finer structure in the ring. Voyager 1 showed a braiding effect not evident in this picture. The small black dots are reseau (reference) marks on the camera. The small bright dash in the middle right of the image is a star trail. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.